Music-Drop Magazine

To those of us who are aware of modern blues artists, Gary Clark Jr presents the freshest sounds since Stevie Ray Vaughan, and although he has slowly been building up a substantial fan base over the past three years, he has over the past year, truely became a brilliant artist in his own right. As a guitarist there are none who can equal him, in his age range. He has been showered by compliments by a heap of guitarists. His debut album "Blak And Blu" was amazing, phenomenal, you won't get another one like it for the rest of the year. The best thing about him? Well that's probably the fact that although you can directly sense his influence in his music, you can still obviously tell it is made in this day and age. Now roughly three quarters of the artists i write about have a 50/50 chance of making it big time, but Gary doesn't have that, he IS going to make it, this isn't optimism, this is realism at its finest.

The Chronicles of Marnia a tale of woe, loss and defeat but with no lions, witches or wardrobes. Whys that? Maybe because you can't fit it on a disc. Yep The Chronicles of Marnia is actually not some shoddy fan fiction re-working of C.S.Lewis's prized work, they are actually a rather awesomely named album by the guitar virtuoso Marnie Stern who apparently you can joke with about her parent's unusual name choices. The album itself is rather well crafted and among the better albums of this  year so far, but i know what you're all thinking "That's because you were laughing at the title all the way through the album". Im not going to say i wasn't  laughing all the way through about the title but i will say that i did listen to it, and what i heard i liked. Marnie is one of those guitarists who is unique she is incredible with the guitar and her voice flows so easily alongside her guitars cries.  C.S Lewis you just got out done.

Oli Brown. To many of you that name may not mean anything to you, to some of you however it may strike you that i'm writing about the modern bluesmen Oli Brown born 1989.  Oli first picked up the guitar at the age of 12 in 2002, clearly talented at it by the age of 15 he was invited to America as the guest of American Blues band Blinddog Smokin'. This first trip saw Oli share the stage with both Taj Mahal and Buddy Guy. His debut album "Open Road" was released in 2008 to great reviews as well as being rated 2nd Best album of the year by Blues Matters! magazine. After this, his band 'The Oli Brown Band was the ONLY!!!! UK act to be selected for the 2008 International Blues Convention in Memphis. In 2010 Oli Began work on his second album alongside legendary producer, Mike Vernon (Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, David Bowie, etc), Mike came out of retirement JUST to produce this album. If that however isnt enough to make you listen to "Heads I...

Joanne Shaw Taylor born 1986 is one of many aspiring young musicians active on the blues scene over here in Britain. However she is not just "one" of the musicians she is "The" musician of the moment in the blues scene. Born and raised in Birmingham, UK she heard the music of Blues Legends like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins and Jimi Hendrix and immediately became hooked on the blues. Her professional life inside the blues world started however when she turned 16 when Dave Stewart (Best known for his work with Eurythmics) invited her to join his supergroup D.U.P. It wasn't long before her talent and skill caught the eyes and attention of the music industry with  her debut album "White Sugar" released in 2009 gaining attention from the musical world, this album among her other 3, is a true blues piece of magic in our century and for me easily ranks as one of the better blues album of the 00s as well as the best album of 2009. Apparently it wasn...